Day: September 8, 2011

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued a “final” draft version of proposed new drilling regulations yesterday (see link to full copy below) after incorporating new information it received from a private study about the industrialization affects of drilling on local communities. The new draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) weighs in at 1,537 pages—a behemoth. DEC Commissioner Joe Martens set up a 90-day public comment period to end December 12th, instead of the previously promised 60-day period.

Consol Energy Inc. has sold exploration and development rights for natural gas in the Ohio Utica Shale to Hess Corp. The $593 million deal was announced yesterday. The agreement gives Hess 50 percent of Consol’s mineral rights to some 200,000 acres. Hess will pay Consol $59 million when the deal closes in October and invest an additional $534 million in the operation over the next five years.

MDN’s hat is off to Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon who spoke his mind yesterday at a shale gas conference in Philadelphia. Outside the industry event were hundreds of protesters, and McClendon had the following to say about them:

A private study on the socio-economic impacts shale gas drilling is projected to have in New York State shows hydraulic fracturing will create some 54,000 jobs and result in $2.5 billion in economic activity. The report, titled “Economic Assessment Report for the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on New York State’s Oil, Gas, and Solution Mining Regulatory Program,” was commissioned by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and researched and written by Ecology and Environment Engineering, P.C. A full copy is embedded below.